System and Method for Online Agency

Abstract

The present disclosure describes novel systems and methods for a customer to receive information and/or purchase a product or service while interacting with multiple vendors through a single contact/agency. The customer is able to communicate with the agency through a variety of communication modes. The agency adapts the customer's input as necessary to meet the requirements of the vendors and the agency returns information to the customer so that the customer can conveniently interact with the multiple vendors. The systems and methods allow for the customer to stop and restart the process at various points using any of the communication modes. The agency has the ability to present the customer with prospecting, sales, service, upgrades, cross-sells, and other pre- and post-purchase services at the single point-of-contact agency.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system for intermediating internet traffic between a customer device and a plurality of different provider devices, the system comprising:
 a first network interface device configured to receive a first customer dataset via the internet;   a first processor configured to (a) access a storage drive to load a first supplemental dataset based on receipt of the first customer dataset at the first network device and (b) supplement the first customer dataset based on the loaded first supplemental dataset;   a second processor configured to (a) load a plurality of different filters based on receipt of the supplemented first customer dataset, (b) apply the plurality of different filters to the supplemented first customer dataset, (c) select a subset of a plurality of provider devices based on outcomes of the plurality of different filters, the selected subset including a first provider device and a second provider device, (d) reformat the supplemented first customer dataset into a first revised customer dataset, and (e) reformat the supplemented first customer dataset into a second revised reformatted customer dataset;   a second network interface configured to (a) transmit the first revised dataset to the first provider device over the internet and (b) transmit the second revised dataset to the second provider device over the internet.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the second network interface is configured to: receive a first reply dataset from the first provider device via the internet and a second reply dataset from the second provider device via the internet;
 the second processor being configured (a) to reformat the first reply dataset into a first reformatted reply dataset and the second reply dataset into a second reformatted reply dataset, and (b) cause the first and second reformatted reply datasets to be transmitted to the customer device.   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the second processor is configured to: (a) select a subset of reformatting rules from a plurality of reformatting rules based on the selected subset of provider devices, and (b) instruct the second network interface to transmit at least one revised reformatted customer dataset to each of the of the selected subset of provider devices. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the second processor is configured to (a) reformat the supplemented first customer dataset into the first revised customer dataset based on one of the selected subset of reformatting rules and (b) reformat the supplemented first customer dataset into the second revised customer dataset based on another of the selected subset of reformatting rules. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the system is configured to intermediate all electronic traffic between the customer device and the plurality of provider devices. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the first network interface is configured to transmit the first reformatted reply dataset and the second reformatted reply dataset to the customer device. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the second processor is configured to package the first reformatted reply dataset with the second reformatted reply dataset so that the first network interface transmits the reformatted reply datasets as a unit and the customer devices receives the reformatted reply datasets as a unit. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the storage device comprises a first database and a second database, the first database being configured to communicate with the first processor without the internet. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first processor is configured to generate and transmit login credentials to the customer device. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first customer dataset comprises insurance coverage information. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the first and second reply datasets comprise insurance quotes. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first reformatted reply dataset and the second reformatted reply datasets observe a common predetermined format. 
     
     
         13 . A method of intermediating internet traffic between a customer device and a plurality of different provider devices, the method comprising:
 with a first network interface device, receiving a first customer dataset via the internet;   with a first processor: (a) accessing a storage drive to load a first supplemental dataset based on receipt of the first customer dataset at the first network device and (b) supplementing the first customer dataset based on the loaded first supplemental dataset;   with a second processor: (a) loading a plurality of different filters based on receipt of the supplemented first customer dataset, (b) applying the plurality of different filters to the supplemented first customer dataset, (c) selecting a subset of a plurality of provider devices based on outcomes of the plurality of different filters, the selected subset including a first provider device and a second provider device, (d) reformatting the supplemented first customer dataset into a first revised customer dataset, and (e) reformatting the supplemented first customer dataset into a second revised reformatted customer dataset;   with a second network interface: (a) transmitting the first revised dataset to the first provider device via the internet and (b) transmitting the second revised dataset to the second provider device over the internet.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 with the second network interface: receiving a first reply dataset from the first provider device via the internet and receiving a second reply dataset from the second provider device via the internet;   with the second processor: (a) reformatting the first reply dataset into a first reformatted reply dataset and the second reply dataset into a second reformatted reply dataset, and (b) causing the first network interface to transmit the first reformatted reply and the second reformatted reply to the customer device.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the second processor is configured to select a subset of reformatting rules from a plurality of reformatting rules based on the selected subset of provider devices. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the second processor is configured to (a) reformat the supplemented first customer dataset into the first revised customer dataset based on one of the selected subset of reformatting rules and (b) reformat the supplemented first customer dataset into the second revised customer dataset based on another of the selected subset of reformatting rules. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising intermediating all electronic traffic between the customer device and the plurality of provider devices. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising intermediating all electronic traffic between the customer device and the plurality of provider devices. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first network interface is configured to transmit the first reformatted reply dataset and the second reformatted reply dataset to the customer device;
 wherein the second processor is configured to package the first reformatted reply dataset with the second reformatted reply dataset so that the first network interface transmits the reformatted reply datasets as a unit and the customer device receives the reformatted reply datasets as a unit.   
     
     
         20 . A method of intermediating internet traffic between a customer device and a plurality of different provider devices, the method comprising:
 receiving a customer dataset via the internet;   supplementing the customer dataset to generate a supplemented dataset;   selecting a subset of a plurality of provider devices based on the supplemented dataset;   reformatting the supplemented dataset into a plurality of reformatted datasets, each of the plurality of reformatted datasets corresponding to one of the selected subset of provider devices;   transmitting one of the plurality of reformatted datasets to each of the selected subset of provider devices via the internet.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , further comprising:
 receiving a first reply dataset from a first of the plurality of provider devices via the internet and receiving a second reply dataset from a second of the plurality of provider devices via the internet;   reformatting the first reply dataset into a first reformatted reply dataset and the second reply dataset into a second reformatted reply dataset;   transmitting the first reformatted reply dataset and the second reformatted reply dataset to the customer device.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 packaging the first reformatted reply dataset with the second reformatted reply dataset so that the reformatted reply datasets are transmitted as a unit and the customer device receives the reformatted reply datasets as a unit.